MacRumors iPhone and iPad Blog: Apps, News, and Rumors

Nest Labs today announced the "Works with Nest" developer program, which allows its Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect products to connect to a number of services from the likes of Google, Mercedes Benz, Whirlpool, LIFX and more for enhanced smart-home functionalities. For example, Nest integration with Jawbone's UP24 band allows the smart thermostat to begin heating and cooling when a user...

Withings today unveiled a stylish new fitness tracker, the Activité, which bundles activity tracking capabilities into a traditional-style watch. Unlike smart watch and fitness band offerings from companies like Samsung, Pebble, Nike, and more, the new Activité features a round, analog watch face protected by sapphire glass and attached to a leather band. Inside, the watch includes sensors...

Apple.club.tw 曝光/">share an image of what appears to be models of the next generation iPhone, iPad Mini, and iPad Air. The iPhone 6 models have already been covered extensively, while we got the first glimpse of the purported iPad Air 2 just last week. The iPad Air 2 model was shown to depict Touch ID, changed speaker grille, and recessed volume buttons. The new image doesn't reveal any...

Air Display developer Avatron Software today launched Air Stylus, an app that allows users to utilize the iPad as a pressure-sensitive, wireless drawing surface for over 30 graphics programs on the Mac. The app is compatible with a number of pressure sensitive styli, including the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus and the Adonit Jot Touch 4, and works with popular programs such as Adobe...

Best Buy is currently offering a $50 discount Apple's Retina iPad mini as part of a Grad sale, dropping the price of the entry-level tablet to $349. Combined with a student deal that offers an additional $50 off, it's possible to get a Retina iPad mini for as little as $300. The combined $100 discount is good on any Retina iPad mini, cellular and WiFi and with all storage capacities. To take ...

Gaming peripheral company Wikipad has announced an iPad mini version of its Gamevice mobile game controller, reports Slide to Play (via TouchArcade). The Gamevice sports a form-fitting design that cradles the iPad mini, and features console-style controls including dual-analog sticks, a directional pad, face buttons, shoulder bumpers, and triggers. The accessory is compatible with all iOS...

Popular game developer Halfbrick Studios has made its entire catalog of apps free to download, which means titles like Fruit Ninja, Fish Out of Water, Monster Dash and Age of Zombies are all free. While some of these titles, like Fruit Ninja have been free many times in the past, other titles, like Colossatron and Fish Out of Water have not been offered for free. As noted by our sister site Tou...

Facebook today launched a new app called Slingshot, which is designed to compete with popular ephemeral messaging app Snapchat. A video and photo messaging app, Slingshot allows users to send media to friends, who are unable to view it until they share something back. Shots taken with the camera can be edited with captions and doodles, and then sent to multiple friends or a single friend. Sling...

Longtime GPS navigation leader Garmin is expanding its app portfolio with its newly-announced navigation title, Viago. The maps company hopes to compete with free navigation apps such as Apple Maps by offering Viago with an affordable price tag and a robust set of core navigation features. Viago sets itself apart from the competition with a set of standard navigation features that are not...

Automatic today announced a major update for its Automatic app and connected driving platform, introducing a significant app overhaul with a revamped UI designed to be "lighter, faster, and more modern." Along with a new look, the Automatic app now provides data on fuel level and gives low fuel warnings. In supported cars, fuel level will be displayed directly in the iPhone app, along with an...

Nearly three months after it was pulled from shelves over safety concerns, Nest has restarted sales of its Nest Protect app-enabled smoke detector with a lower price tag of $99, reports The New York Times. The company, which was acquired by Google in January for $3.2 billion, stopped selling its smoke detector after testing revealed that the Nest Wave feature could be disabled...

Angela Ahrendts has plans to initiate a major restructuring of Apple's Retail stores to promote better customer service and to streamline operations, reports 9to5Mac. At the current point in time, stores are organized into geographical regions, but Ahrendts wants to restructure, instead grouping stores based on sales volume and customer demographics.This means that stores will now be grouped by...

Longtime Apple supplier Foxconn is said to be in talks with Japanese display manufacturer Sharp to utilize the firm's technology in order to start producing displays for the iPhone and the iPad, reports Taiwan's United Daily News (Google Translate, via GforGames). While Foxconn has long been the primary assembler for Apple's devices, a further collaboration with Sharp would mean that the...

Microsoft earlier this year introduced Cortana, an intelligent virtual assistant to compete with iOS' Siri and Android's Google Now. Cortana was launched as a Windows Phone 8.1 feature, but a new report from Search Engine Land suggests Microsoft may expand the service to iOS and Android. Speaking at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle yesterday, Windows Phone Group Program Manager Marcus...

Twitter has updated its iOS app with a feature called "World Cup Timelines", which allows users to see relevant tweets about all the games during the month-long 2014 FIFA World Cup. New for World Cup: The World Cup Timeline is where all the action happens. In addition to Tweets from your network, you will see relevant Tweets from teams, players, coaches, press, venues, and celebs. Are you...

Facebook has updated its popular Facebook Messenger app with 15-second videos and "big likes", adding more ways for users to interact with their friends. What's New Instant Video Sending: Shoot and play 15-second video messages from the camera right in the app Big Likes: Press and hold to send an even bigger thumbs up when you really, really like something. Easy video sharing has been a...

Apple has introduced a new "Browse by Category" section in the featured section of both the desktop and iOS App Store, allowing users to easily browse the store via categories in a more visually appealing way than before. Previously, users had to click on "Categories" in the upper-left corner of the App Store and choose from a drop-down list. The new collection is yet another move by Apple...

Vessyl, a smart cup designed by Yves Behar, is designed to measure and track any drink poured into it in real-time. Using sensors, Vessyl is able to detect drinks that are poured in to it, from water and soda to homemade smoothies, alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, and more. When a drink is poured into Vessyl, an accompanying iPhone app displays all of the relevant nutritional information...